He waited, uncertainly. At last Professor Larrabee pointed to the unoccupied chair. "Perhaps you'd care to join us, instead?" No one else spoke, and he sat down nervously. Conversation had stopped, and at last he broke out with explosive force. "I wish Captain Evans would speed up this ship. It feels as if we'd been on the way forever. And still three weeks to go!" "Do you find three weeks so long a time?" asked the professor. "It seems like eternity. I wish something would happen. Why can't we have a little excitement?" "Couldn't you find any more banks to break today?" Alan drawled. "No gambles on the stock exchange?" The professor broke in soothingly. "Now, there's an idea! You're obviously a gambling man, a man of action. Do you play poker? Why don't you get up a little game among your friends? That ought to provide you with excitement for one evening at least." "Would you join the game?" "No, no, my dear Mr. Jasperson! You and I do not move in the same circles. I confess, I enjoy the delightful uncertainties of poker, but I could never afford to play for your stakes." "Then we'll make the stakes what you can afford. Each raise limited to five credits?" "In that case, I might consider it." "You, Dr. Chase?" "Too exciting for an invalid, I'm afraid." "You, Mr. Hall?" Tom squeezed Dorothy's hand under the table. "No, thank you, Mr. Jasperson. My wife and I, we have other plans." "If it's money, young fellow, I'll stake you, and you can have a year to pay me back." Tom grinned. "You're very generous. But what makes you so sure you'd be the winner?" "I always win. Will you join the game, Miss Taganova?" He accepted her silent head-shake without protest. "Then I'll try to round up two or three others. We don't want a big crowd--too many people make me nervous. Perhaps Willoughby will play, and I'll get Captain Evans. He doesn't like the game, but he'll sit in if I insist. See you in my suite in half an hour." * * * * * The poker game had been in progress for more than an hour when Captain Evans entered the parlor. Frowning, Jasperson looked up. "You're late, Josiah. I told you we'd begin at nine." "Sorry, Burl. I was delayed." Jasperson paused in the act of raking in the pot, and looked up sharply. "Anything wrong?" "No, all serene." "Anything you need my advice on?" "No, just a routine conference with the navigator." "Then pull up a chair and get in the game." Nearly half the chips were piled in front of Jasperson, and across from him a modest heap sat before the professor. At his right the baggy-eyed only son of a deutonium millionaire fingered his dwindling pile indifferently, and on his left Dr. Willoughby stared unbelievingly at his few remaining chips, three blues and a couple of whites. "I'll just watch," said the Captain. "You know I'm not much of a gambler. Chess is my game." "Oh, come on, Josiah. I insist that you play. Prove that you've got red blood in your veins."